Attachable device for corsets.



No. 664,220. i atented n l8, I900.

S. KERNWEIN. ATTACHABLE DEVICE FOR COBSETS.

(Application filed Oct. 15, 1900.

(No Modal.)

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UNITED STATES JATENT Errors.

IATTACHABLE DEVICE FOR CORSET'S.

srEcIFIcA'rIoN' formingpart of Letters Patent No. 664,220, dated December 18, 906. Application filed October 15, 1900. Serial No- 33,112. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, SOPHIA KERNWEIN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, county of Cook, State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Attachable Devices for Corsets, of which the following is a specification.

Objects of my invention are to provide a simple and comparatively inexpensive device adapted to effectively accomplish the purposes for which it is intended when in use upon a corset and constructed and arranged to admit of its being made and sold as anarticle entirely separate from a corset and read-.

ily applied by the purchaser to any of the usual constructions of corsets in general use, to adapt such article or attachment to provide when applied and in use an effective adjustable restraining, bracing, and tensional stay device operating to restrain and draw back certain portions of the corset with the view of gradually retracting an abnormallyprojecting abdomen and while compelling the corset to press inwardly at certain desired points to prevent it from undesirably bulging out at other points, and to generally cause the corset to have a tendency to restore the body of the wearer to a normal condition and to assist in the securement of erect carriage.

To the attainment of the foregoing and other useful ends my invention consists in matters hereinafter more particularly set forth, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 represents in front elevation an attachable device for corsets constructed in accordance with the principles of my invention, portions of the combined tension and restraining belt or band being broken away for convenience of illustration. Fig. 2 is a section through Fig. 1 on line m 00. Fig. 3 is a detail view showing, on a larger scale, parts of the two vertical middle straps or hands of the device or attachment. Fig. 4 is a front view of a corset with my improved device attached. Fig. 5 is a rear view of the preceding figure, showing the application of the adjustable combined tension and restraining belt or band.

The attachment or attachable device for corsets illustrated in said drawings and constructed in accordance with the principles of my invention comprises a couple of mairi parts or sections. The attachable device con sidered as a whole comprises a pair of separable vertical middle straps or bands A A of anysuitable material, such as suitably strong fabric, a combined tension and restraining belt or band B B, adapted for adjustment in length and having its forward ends respectively secured to the lower'end portions of the vertical middle straps or hands, and a couple of sets of combined tension and restraining stay straps or pieces 0, C, and 0 having their upper ends attached to the vertical middle bands at points along the latter and having their lower ends attached to the front end portions 1) Z) of the combined tension and restraining belt or band at points consistent with the inclination or downward divergence of such straps from the vertical middle bands.

The vertical middle bands are designed for ready attachment to the front edge portions of a corset and when thus attached constitute attaching portions whereby the entire device is supported upon and attached to the corset, thereby leaving the oblique or inclined combined tension and restraining staystraps and the adjustable combined tension and restraining belt or band free to exert upon the corset the individual actions for which they are intended and also free to increase or modify their proposed tension or restraint upon certain desired portions of the corset in accordance with the adjustment in length of the combined tension and restraining band which is to be carried about the person of the wearer of the corset, below the latter, for a purpose hereinafter more particularly explained.

The vertical middle bands are adapt-ed to receive and fit upon the front edges of a corset substantially in the manner of double bindings, and to such end each middle band comprises acouple of leaves or folds a a, laid together fiatwise and preferably stitched together, as along the line a, Fig.3, it being understood that each band may be composed of two strips stitched together or of one suitably-wide strip folded along a longitudinal line. One of these vertical middle bands has its front leaf or fold provided with small openings or eyelet-holes a (one of which is KOO shown in Fig. to receive the studs d, usually provided along one of the front edges of a corset D, as illustrated in Fig. 4, and the other vertical middle band is provided along its inner or folded edge portion with a set of openings (1 through which the eyepieces (1 attached to the opposite corset edge and adapted to engage the studs (1, can project.

In order to apply the attachment to a corset, it will only be necessary to open the vertical middle bands, fit them to the front vertical edge portions of the corset, and permit the studs d on one edge to project through the eyelet-holes a of one vertical middle band and the eyepieces of the other edge of the corset to project through the openings a" in the remaining vertical middle band, after which the free edge portions of the two vertical middle bands can be held fiatwise against the inner and outer sides of the front edge portions of the corset by a few stitches taken through the bands and corset, as along lines a, Fig. 3, it being observed that a purchaser of the attachment will find no trouble in thus taking a few stitches through the vertical middle bands and corset.

When the attachment is properly applied, its vertical middle bands will extend from about the middle or waist-line of the corset down to the lower front end of the latter, whereby the union of the belt B with the middle bands will be adjacent to the lower ends of the usual steels with which the front edge portions of the corset are reinforced, and at this point I provide the two vertical middle bands with hook-and-eye or any other suitable separable fastening devices E to connect such bands together in opposition to the draft strain exerted by the belt or band B upon the lower portions of the vertical middle bands and the parts of the corset edges to which said bands are applied.

The belt or band B is connected with the attachment hereinbefore described, but is otherwise free and independent of the corset, so that when the attachment is applied to a corset, as in Fig. 4:, the belt. can be carried rearwardly and around the body of the wearer and below the corset, as in Fig. 5. Any suitable means, such as as a tongue and buckle or the like, can be provided for adjusting the length of the belt and for varying such length according to circumstances.

\Vhere it is desirable to restrain and gradually reduce an abnormally-projecting abdomen, the belt B can be adjusted so as to exert a tensional strain upon the lower front part of the corset, which adjustment can be varied from time to time as may be needed, and since the belt is independent of and does not act upon the sides and rear of the corset the effect will be a suitable drawing back of the lower middle front portion of the corset without interruption and without the opposition encountered in corsets where the sides or sides and rear of the corset are subject to the counter strains or pressure of belts or bandages. The further effect of my invention is to tend to cause the wearer to assume a more erect carriage, there being no resistance to such change, since the belt B may be said to act in conjunction with the front corset-steels as a lever fulcrumed in rear of and below the corset.

The functions of the inclined stay straps or bands are to restrain the middle front por-v tion of the corset from bulging outwardly when its lower front end portion is drawn inwardly, to exert upon the front middle line of the corset a combined lateral and downward tension proportional to the adjustment of the belt B, and to restrain against outward projection and also press upon the front portion of the corset which lies over the abdomen. These straps or bands pull downwardly from the middle line of the attachment when the latter is applied and in use, and being oblique or inclined they also pull rearwardly from such middle line to an extent proportional to the adjustment of the belt B. The straps or hands C, for example, connect with the upper end portions of the vertical bands, while the remaining inclined straps or bands, which may be varied in number according to the size of the attachment required, are attached to the middle band at points lower down. I also find more effective results are secured by varying the inclination of these inclined straps or hands, one of such arrangements being illustrated, and I therefore regard the arrangement of such straps or bands having varying degrees of inclination or different angles relatively to the middle straps and bands as a matter of further improvement. It will also be seen that when my improved attachment or attachable device is applied to a corset the two sections of which it is composed are free from and unattached'to the corset with the exception of the vertical middle straps A A, which are anchored to the vertical meeting front edge portions of such corset. tVhen, therefore, the belt or strap B is adjusted so as to shorten it in length, it will be free to draw inwardly the lower middle front portion of the corset, and at the same time its adjustment will effect a tensional adjustment of the inclined straps which connect said adjustable belt or band with the vertical middle straps, and thereby vary the tension of the inclined straps proportionally to the adjustment of the adjustable belt or band, which as it is shortened up exerts a direct back pull on the lower front end portion of a corset to which the attachment may be applied and also exerts, through the medium of the inclined straps, an oblique and back pull upon the middle line of the corset, while at the same time the inclined straps restrain and keep back the front portions of the corset over which they pass.

What I claim as my invention is 1. An attachable device for corsets, comprising a couple of separable sections, and constructed with a pair of vertical middle straps or hands, one for each of said separable sections; an adjustable, combined tension and restraining belt or band having its front ends secured to the lower end portions of the vertical middle straps or hands; and a couple of sets of inclined, combined tension and restraining stay-straps connecting the vertical middle straps or bands at points along the latter with the front portions of the said adjustable belt or band at points along the same; the vertical middle straps or hands being adapted for ready application and attachment to the meeting front edge portions of a corset, and the adjustable belt or band which is attached to the lower end portions of such vertical middle straps or bands and indirectly connected with upper portions of said middle straps or bands by the combined tension and restraining stay straps or bands, be-

ing adjustable in length and free to pass around the person of the user below the corset, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

2. An attachable device for corsets, comprising a couple of separable sections, and constructed with a pair of vertical middle straps or bands, one for each of said separable sections; an adjustable, combined tension and restraining belt or band having its front ends secured to the lower end portions of the vertical middle straps or hands; and a couple of sets of inclined, combined tension and restraining stay-straps connecting the vertical middle straps or bands at points along the latter with the front portions of the said adjustable belt or band at points along the same, said inclined tension and restraining straps being arranged at different degrees of inclination; the vertical middle straps or bands being adapted for ready application and attachment to the meeting front edge portions of a corset, and the adjustable belt or band which is attached to the lower end portions of such vertical middle straps or hands and indirectly connected with the upper portions of said middle straps or bands by the combined tension and restraining stay straps or bands, being adjustable in length and free to pass around the person of the user below the corset, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

3. An attachable device for corsets, comprising a couple of separable sections, and constructed with a pair of vertical middle straps or bands, one for each of said separable sections and each formed with a couple of leaves or folds; an adjustable, combined tension and restraining belt or band having its front ends secured to the lower end portions of the vertical middle straps or bands; a couple of sets of inclined, combined tension and restraining stay-straps connecting the vertical middle straps or bands at points along the latter with the front portions of the said adjustable belt or band at points along the same; a separable fastening device applied to the lower end portions of the separable middle straps or hands adjacent to the connections between such middle straps and the forward ends of the adj ustable, combined tension and restraining belt or band; the vertical middle straps or bands being provided with openings for the projecting fastening devices or the meeting front edge portions of the corset, and the adjustable belt or band which is attached to the lower end portions of such vertical middle straps or hands and indirectly connected with upper portions of said middle straps or bands by the combined tension and restraining stay straps or hands, being adjustable in length and free to pass around the person of the user below the corset, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. The combination with a corset, of an attachable device comprising a pair of separable sections respectively attached to the meeting front edge portions of the corset, but otherwise free from the latter; said attachable device being constructed with a couple of vertical middle straps or hands applied and attached t0 the meeting front edge portions of the corset and extending substantially from or adjacent to the waist-line of the corset to the lower end thereof; a combined tension and restraining belt or band provided with suitable means for adjusting it in length and having its front ends secured to the lower end portions of the middle straps or hands; and a couple of sets of inclined, combined tension and restraining straps or bands having their upper ends secured to the vertical middle straps at points along the latter, and having their lower ends secured to the front portions of the combined adjustable tension and restraining belt or band; the said combined adjustable tension and restraining belt or band being free to pass around the person of the wearer below the corset, and said belt or band together with the inclined, tension and restraining straps being free from the corset to permit their tensional adjustment independent of the corset, substantially as and for the purpose set forth. V

SOPHIA KERNWEIN. Witnesses:

THOMAS C. TAYLOR, ARTHUR G. OLSEN. 

